Equipment for Hurricane?

[Zakary2003]

I am in Florida and we are about to get hit with a hurricane. This is my first hurricane season with a reef tank. In the past, I've kept freshwater tanks. Those just required a battery powered air pump with an airstone (which i think i still have somewhere), and sometimes a heater. What can I do to keep my AIO 20 gallon cube up and running during the storm? As far as equipment goes I have a DC hygger mini wave maker in the tank as well as a heater, an AI prime 16HD light, and the the ~260 gph AC return pump. I also have a refugium with a small grow light in the back middle chamber. I assume the lights are not a necessity and the heater won't be needed if the AC goes out with the power, but am I right in this assumption? Any tips will be appreciated! I'm panicking a little because I kinda didn't think about the reef tank until now!

 

[blaxsun]

Lighting, return pump, heater and skimmer are all tertiary. The most important item will be battery backup for your wavemakers. You can also run an airstone to help oxygenate the water as well.

This is about as much as I can advise being outside of hurricane zones, so I'll let others offer suggestions with respect to generators, gasoline, solar power, etc.

 

[jda]

That battery power air stone is a good start. Heater after a while if it gets cold. Flow pumps next. Lights can be out for days or a week.

Larger inverter to run off of your car is a good idea, but generator is better. Generator keep your fridge food from spoiling too. You probably won't find a generator locally right now, but look later on.

I hope that if you lose power, it is not for long...

 

[Reefering1]

Where in FL are you?

 

[Pickle_soup]

Lighting, return pump, heater and skimmer are all tertiary. The most important item will be battery backup for your wavemakers. You can also run an airstone to help oxygenate the water as well.

This is about as much as I can advise being outside of hurricane zones, so I'll let others offer suggestions with respect to generators, gasoline, solar power, etc.

One of the reasons why I like echotech MPs, you can get 24-hour batter for them.

 

[blaxsun]

One of the reasons why I like echotech MPs, you can get 24-hour batter for them.

The IceCap battery backup is good for most DC gyres - giving you 35 hours on a single unit.

 

[Pickle_soup]

The IceCap battery backup is good for most DC gyres - giving you 35 hours on a single unit.

Hmmm...I like it!!!

 

[Reefering1]

Probably still worth looking for a generator. Remember smaller hardware stores(ace, harbor freight, etc have generators also.. inverter generator is best but conventional works also( but has its risks)
As far as lights and heater go- yes you don't need them as such but your lights may be biggest source of heat, I know I to like to crank the a/c down before power loss so its cool overnight for me to sleep before dragging out generator. The tank is susceptible to drop temp in these hours with no heat. Shouldn't be enough to kill it but definitely enough to stress. Mine dropped about 8 degrees the first night last storm we had

 

[Reefering1]

One of the reasons why I like echotech MPs, you can get 24-hour batter for them.

The IceCap battery backup is good for most DC gyres - giving you 35 hours on a single unit.

May be easier to get a ups unit and a couple car batteries with such short notice.

 

[Pickle_soup]

On one occasion, I had to run my tank with a car power inverter from my garage for two days. Just connected the powerheads and had them blasting at the water surface. Not a single fatality.

 

[The_Paradox]

The IceCap battery backup is good for most DC gyres - giving you 35 hours on a single unit.

Or get a racked UPS and run for days but hurricanes take out power long to even consider relying on a UPS. Best bet if you’re worried about just the tank would be something like a Westinghouse pure sine generator. Even something small like the igen2200 wil run your tank and refrigerator all day on about 4 gallons of petrol. If you want to get fancy you can get their breakout kits and leave a dedicated plug next to the tank that’s only hot when the generator is running.

 

[Reefering1]

Another good option... and I bet there will be much less of a rush of people looking for inverters

 

[vetteguy53081]

I am in Florida and we are about to get hit with a hurricane. This is my first hurricane season with a reef tank. In the past, I've kept freshwater tanks. Those just required a battery powered air pump with an airstone (which i think i still have somewhere), and sometimes a heater. What can I do to keep my AIO 20 gallon cube up and running during the storm? As far as equipment goes I have a DC hygger mini wave maker in the tank as well as a heater, an AI prime 16HD light, and the the ~260 gph AC return pump. I also have a refugium with a small grow light in the back middle chamber. I assume the lights are not a necessity and the heater won't be needed if the AC goes out with the power, but am I right in this assumption? Any tips will be appreciated! I'm panicking a little because I kinda didn't think about the reef tank until now!

Im aware and sorry to see this once again. My house is in Doral and still awaiting repair and we got worse news about work to be done 3 weeks ago. One more water episode and its for sale.
Generator is the #1 item followed by battery operated air pumps, ice /ice packs and a prayer

 

[The_Paradox]

Don’t Jack your car up. Also power is often out weeks depending where you are.

 

[19Mateo83]

I’ve gone 15 hours on this battery and inverter running a 5w koralia. I have the same hygger mini and it only runs on 3w so you should get more time with it. I don’t have a solar cell for my setup yet but I’m about to add a second battery and solar cell to give me an infinite run time.


I can also snag car batteries if needed for this setup. I run my pump shallow blowing just under the surface to create a gyre circulation effect and it sucks air from time to time for oxygenation.

 

[Reefering1]

Don't forget about you and your family too.. fill extra space in fridge/freezer with frozen bottles of water to help keep it cool. Food that doesn't need to be cooked, propane, a cooler for drinks so you're not constantly opening fridge. Fill bath tub with water for flushing toilets.(seal drain so you don't lose it) flashlight, car charger for phones. Do laundry. Clean as much as you can now, a couple days with no a/c brings out any smells

 

[jda]

Some of those jump start boxes have inverters and can run a low wattage pump for a long time.

If it is hot, freeze some RO water to cool your tank.

 

[jda]

It looks like there are some $369 generators at Harbor Freight in Jacksonville... the one on Jacksonville Beach Blvd? Who knows if their website is accurate, but looks like plenty are in stock.

Generator is a huge deal in hurricane, tornado or ice storm paths and you can use them for many years.

 

[The_Paradox]

It looks like there are some $369 generators at Harbor Freight in Jacksonville... the one on Jacksonville Beach Blvd? Who knows if their website is accurate, but looks like plenty are in stock.

Generator is a huge deal in hurricane, tornado or ice storm paths and you can use them for many years.

Best bet would be to call. Just don’t run any electronics off that unless you put a UPS infront of devices.

 

[Dr. Jim]

I moved to Naples, FL 2 months ago and am lucky the hurricane is just missing us today. If I had natural gas I would buy a whole house generator, but I don't, and burying a propane tank isn't appealing. I have 3 Ecotech Battery backups that will operate a MP10 for 3 days in each of my tanks to agitate the surface. I also have a bunch of battery-operated air pumps. In my garage is my Tesla which has a 10K battery from which I can run an extension cord to my fish room.
I haven't calculated how much I can run off of this and for how long, but it should operate essentials for many days.

My biggest concerns are:
1. cooling the tanks when the AC goes out. I have 3 large bags of frozen RODI water in the freezer and am contemplating a 200-300W portable AC unit and buying one of these generators with a solar panel from Amazon:

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This Solar Generator can run a lot of equipment during the night and the next day the solar panel can take over and recharge the generator.
(Mounting the solar panel to withstand a hurricane could be a problem so I'm thinking of putting it in a window in my fish room which faces south).

2. My other concern is no lights for corals if power is out for more than a day or two, Again, the Solar Generator would come in handy for this and I could just run a couple of Radions for 4 or 5 hours per day.

We can beat these hurricanes, gang!